Unsubscribing

I am sitting at the Starbucks in Hanover (NH) and my buddy Jason L. just came up and said hi. A few of us had a sauna in our neighborhood wood-burning sauna on Blood Brook at 10pm last night and we talked about how excellent that was…even the dip in the roaring (still damn cold) brook while the rain fell was a positive.

When he asked what I was doing, I casually said I had gone from 1,100 emails to 895 emails – knowing in my mind that doing this meant I was mostly wasting time. In all honesty, I’m here because our 12-year old daughter woke up and decided she wanted to work at Boloco today… so she’s over there volunteering as dishwasher and burrito roller. She was so excited.

Jason then told me that I need to be unsubscribing as much as I’m deleting. Which I acknowledged but also said it seemed futile. They never stop coming.

To which he said that there must be a hell of a business in selling the emails of those who actively unsubscribe to new marketers and spammers. I knew that by unsubscribing you were confirming your address for that one organization… but it never occurred to me that you were now an address that could be sold at a premium which would ultimately keep the game going forever.

Is anyone really getting this email thing right? Over any long period of time? Please do share if so.